I’ve struggled a lot this election season. There are people very dear to me on both sides of this debate who feel very strongly about the rightness of their position. This is also a time in my life that I’m growing and learning about what I believe, and that has been very difficult during this election.
It feels like people used to be able to agree to disagree, but that has all changed. Now, if you disagree with someone you might get called stupid, emotional, unamerican, unchristian, racist, brainwashed, and many more, each as hurtful as the last. Each side believes they are the rational, logical, and morally right opinion, and they do not hesitate to tell you that.
The amount of negativity, the name-calling and bashing, I have seen and heard on a daily basis is toxic and incredibly stressful. I have never experienced so much hate in my life. To be brutally honest, I got effectively drunk on election night because I knew it was about to get so much worse. I’ve been having anxiety attacks that make it hard to breath. And for all you women who know how significant this is, I was so stressed that my period was 18 days late.
All this, because the way we discuss politics is disgusting.
Before I continue, I want to clarify something. I do not mean that politics/social justice is not something worth fighting for and engaging in. I do not mean that patriotism is wrong. What I’m hoping to do, is bring some perspective and big picture to the table.
I am a Christian before I am an American. Ultimately, my identity and my home is in the God who created me, and my purpose is for the greater story of God’s work in this world. Acknowledging this helped me realize a few things.
First of all, America isn’t the beginning or end of God’s plan. Though we are a unique country that has prospered enormously, we are one of the many nations and empires that have risen and fallen throughout history, including God’s chosen nation of Israel. People seem to view America as the center of history, and that the downfall of America is the end of the world. But America is temporary, and so is her government. When America is gone, life will go on. It probably won’t be as easy, or as prosperous, but Jesus didn’t promise prosperity, did he? It’s not a requirement to experience love, or joy, or peace. And neither is America.
I have a lot of thoughts about the way people view America (including themes such as her identity as a Christian nation, legislating morality, and putting our hope in a government created by fallen humans), but that is a whole different blog.
My biggest problem with this election season is that politics has become a point of idolatry for many American Christians. Again, I don’t mean that politics are bad. I mean that politics have taken over as the most important thing in their life, before friendships, before family, before God. And so many times, those people have looked at me and demanded (knowingly or not) that politics have that same place in my life too.
But the purpose of my life is twofold: to love the Lord my God, and to love my neighbors as myself. And for me, politics is not the way I am called to love my neighbors.
Ask yourself this: if Jesus lived in America right now, what would he think of us? If he sat down to listen to the conversation during your Thanksgiving dinner, how would he feel? (If you’re thinking about the time he flipped the tables in the Temple, that wasn’t about politics. That was about the religious institution, so you might want to ask how he’d feel if he walked into your church.)
This has been a hard time to live in America, but as Christians we need to keep in mind the bigger picture of God’s plan for the world and his purpose for us on earth.
This too shall pass.